We started this short, but special trip very relaxed, got our favorite Starbucks and hit the road with the music on.
It reminded me of our trip to Carmel for Chris & Maché’s re-wedding (my term for vows renewal). I love road trips, with no stress, and no strict schedules attached. We stopped in a Target because Richie wanted to get some jalapeño pretzels. Fifteen minutes later he came back with a smile on his face and no pretzels. The 2nd stop was in a rest area, where we ate the delicious tortilla de patatas that he cooked the day before for this purpose. I walked with Chiqui while he got directions from a maintenance worker, and we took off again. I was happy, relaxed and very excited anticipating the weekend by the ocean and a Monday off from work.
We got to the Best Western Cavalier early, even after making a 3rd stop at another Target, in the middle of nowhere, to look for the so wanted pretzels (he reminded me of my friend Rosa when she was pregnant and fancied licorice all the time). This time he came back with our favorite chewing gum (no luck with the jalapeño pretzels). Our room wasn’t ready yet, so we went to downtown Cambria for a walk with Chiqui, looking for a coffee shop where we could read while waiting. But they called us from the hotel, and we left right away.
The room faced the ocean, and the only thing between us and the waves was a giant carpet of fresh grass and a 6ft tall bonfire that they light at sunset for the guests. To our surprise, they were setting up for a wedding that evening, and we had good balcony seats from our room. The rows of white and perfectly aligned chairs, perpendicular to the ocean, were facing the sun; the arch was decorated with purple ribbons and streamers hanging in a very graceful way, defiant of the weather conditions. The flowers wouldn’t have survived the attack. It was windy and chilly for an outside wedding, but the sun was shining, and the excitement would melt away the cold. I took hundreds of pictures of the room and the view (well, at least 10 or 12, but I am from Andalucía, so I am entitled to exaggerate).
The room faced the ocean, and the only thing between us and the waves was a giant carpet of fresh grass and a 6ft tall bonfire that they light at sunset for the guests. To our surprise, they were setting up for a wedding that evening, and we had good balcony seats from our room. The rows of white and perfectly aligned chairs, perpendicular to the ocean, were facing the sun; the arch was decorated with purple ribbons and streamers hanging in a very graceful way, defiant of the weather conditions. The flowers wouldn’t have survived the attack. It was windy and chilly for an outside wedding, but the sun was shining, and the excitement would melt away the cold. I took hundreds of pictures of the room and the view (well, at least 10 or 12, but I am from Andalucía, so I am entitled to exaggerate).
We were a little hungry, so we decided to go for a walk on the beach with Chiqui, take a few sunset pictures, and then eat at the hotel restaurant. Richie was very happy and, for a curious spectator, extremely affectionate, which was just perfect for me. He was paying attention to little details, especially to my camera. He wanted to make sure that I had it charged because he wanted to take many pictures that evening (which is usually my job and pleasure). How romantic!!
After witnessing the wedding and giving them our silent blessings for the rest of their lives, we headed to the ocean. It felt so good to walk on the soft grass and smell the rose petals that were flying everywhere after the wedding... The wind calmed down and the sun was low in the horizon, painting the sky with those reddish-orange velvet tones that softened the color of the ocean, making it warmer and extraordinarily beautiful.
Richie suggested taking some pictures of us without the dog, and I also found this romantic, so without any objections or disagreements on my side, we took Chiqui to the car and walked back. To my surprise he was carrying his ipod. “Oh, I forgot mine at home,” I said. He asked me to listen to something.I was so excited!! He was doing all these romantic things that made me live the present to the fullest, forgetting about the school, and all the negative stuff around it. He had deleted everything from his ipod except for one song: Eres para Mí, by Julieta Venegas, one of our special songs from almost two years ago. Isn’t that sweet and adorable? He took pictures of me while I enjoyed listening and singing the song. We also took a beautiful self-picture with the sun behind us, and with my hair blowing wildly. We look so happy in that picture…
Then he wanted someone to take a picture of both of us, and I chose the couple who were a little farther away, but who seemed to be more talented for pictures than the other couple behind us. He asked me to stay at the bench in front of the bonfire, facing the waves and the sunset, while he went to ask them. I had to replay the song because it was the only one in the ipod. I was looking at Richie’s butt while he walked toward that couple. The distance and the ipod prevented me from hearing, but according to the gestures they recognized him, because after he asked them to take a pictures, he probably reminded them that he was their wedding DJ because they were very expressive, with their gestures of “Oh my God that’s true, what a coincidence!”
After a couple of minutes, they all walked toward me while continued singing and floating in a cloud of happiness and bliss. Richie sat next to me, took the headphone off my ears and put his ipod away. He kissed me softly on the cheek for a picture. Then we faced the camera and the guy took two more pictures of us hugging on the bench. Richie was squeezing me and I felt him closer than ever. But his joy suddenly froze when we heard “I think your battery just died.” I was all right with it, because we already had a few beautiful pictures, including the sun and the ocean. But Richie couldn’t hide his frustration and disappointment. Wow! He is really into pictures this evening, I thought. What happened next could be regarded as fiction if it had been a novel or a movie. The guy smiled and said “No worries, I have the same camera, and I happened to carry an extra battery with me that will perfectly fit your camera.” I didn’t want to take more of their time and much less their battery, so I immediately thanked him and said that we had plenty of pictures already, so it wasn’t necessary. But Richie seemed to light up and asked him to go ahead and use his battery. I couldn’t believe my ears.
Richie has never been so crazy about pictures, and he wasn’t even being considerate with that couple’s time. But before I finished with all those thoughts of amazement, he had changed the battery and was ready to take more pictures. Richie gave him directions about where he wanted him to position himself in order to shoot more. I was completely amazed and about to talk to my crazy boyfriend to let him know that he was abusing that couple's kindness, even if they were his past clients, and that we definitely didn’t need any more pictures. But I was speechless when he stood up from the bench and got on one knee facing me. I thought my chin just dropped off and touched the ground. My eyes opened widely and my mind stopped working. Is he proposing to me?!
I observed every little movement as if it was the slow replay of someone scoring a goal in the World Cup. He put his hand in his right pocket (where the ipod was), then his left, and took a silver color ring with a big diamond. I put both hands to my mouth and uttered “oh my God, Richie.”
Then he tried to find the correct hand, and the correct finger –I had to assist him for both– and he started his beautiful proposal after letting me know something about the ring that I couldn’t understand: “Silvi, es la verdad, eres para mi. Mi girasolcito bonito, mi angel, quiero pasar el resto de mi vida contigo. Quiero que seas mi esposa. Marry me!” We were both almost crying and I responded “por supuesto!,” and kissed him. Suddenly, while we were melted in a warm hug, I remembered the guy taking pictures, as if I had been temporarily abducted by a strange force. He was still taking pictures and having fun.
He had captured the whole proposal in images thanks to his extra battery. Isn’t that a magic coincidence? Is it destiny?
When we calmed down, after kissing twenty times more, and after having more pictures taken with the sun behind us, we thanked the couple, and talked to them. They happened to be from Holland. They had been married from two years, and she proposed to him. We asked a maintenance guy who was bringing the logs for the bonfire to take a picture with them for our records and for our memories.
We went to the restaurant to celebrate and plan the rest of our lives together. Then he explained to me his whole plan. The real ring wasn’t delivered on time and he had to get a fake one for the proposal, so he thought about getting a cheap imitation diamond ring to have something to put on my finger. In the first Target they were all giant, so he had to try a different one. Finally he got one that was only 2.5 sizes bigger than mine. The couple who took the picture were not past clients, as I thought; they just were happy to witness a proposal and take the pictures… That dinner was memorable. We decided on the wedding day, the food and the guests. We couldn’t wait to tell everybody, specially my parents, so they could book their flight to California. That night I fells asleep with a smile, as big as my fake diamond ring.
If you want to read HIS version of the proposal, click http://richamooi.blogspot.com/Enjoy!!
